WATER.
(Chiefly compiled from the works of Thomson, Pereira, Whewell and others.)
Water was regarded by the ancients as an elementary substance, and as a constituent of most other bodies. This opinion was somewhat modified by the experiments of Van Helmont and Mr. Boyle, who maintained that it could be changed into all vegetable substances, as well as into earth; but it was substantially held until the middle of the last century, (1781,) when Mr. Cavendish proved that this liquid was a compound of oxygen and hydrogen.
Natural History. In the inorganized kingdom.
Water is very generally diffused over the surface of the globe, forming seas, lakes, and rivers; it is mechanically disseminated among rocks, constitutes an essential part of some minerals, and always exists to a greater or less extent, in the atmosphere. In the air, water is formed in two states; as a vapor (which makes about one-seventieth by volume, or one one-hundredth by weight of the atmosphere) it is supposed to be the cause of the blue color to the sky; and in a vesicular form, in which state it constitutes the clouds. Terrestrial water forms about three-fourths of the surface of the terraqueous globe. The average depth of the ocean is calculated at between two and three miles. Now as the height of dry land above the surface of the sea is less than two miles, it is evident, that if the present dry land were distributed over the bottom of the ocean, the surface of the globe would present a mass of waters a mile in depth. On the supposition that the mean depth of the sea is not greater than the fourth part of a mile, the solid contents of the ocean would be 32,058,939 cubic miles (Thomson’s Chemistry.) The quantity of water mechanically disseminated through rocks, which serve merely as a natural reservoir for the time, must be, in the aggregate, very considerable, though it is impossible to form any very accurate estimate of it. Even in those rocks which merely supply springs, the amount of disseminated water must be enormous; for they so far resemble filters, that are necessarily charged with the fluid before they permit it to pass out. De La Beche has advanced the opinion that capillary attraction has great power, both in mechanically disseminating water among rocks, and in retaining it in them when so disseminated, and that it therefore keeps them, to a certain extent, saturated with moisture, and assists in promoting a more equal flow of water in springs. Capillary attraction and gravity probably carry water down far beyond those situations where it can be returned in springs, at least cold springs, for there are certain circumstances connected with those which are thermal, which go to prove, that the water thrown up by them may have percolated to considerable depths. It is very evident that most rocks contain disseminated moisture, for there are few which, when exposed to heat, do not give water. Sulphate of lime, for example, or plaster of paris, contains about 20 per cent., and common serpentine, as much as 15 per cent. of it. Soap-stone has 4 per cent., and even quartz 2 per cent. of water, in their composition. This fluid exists in minerals either as water of crystallization, or combined as a hydrate.
But though water is thus generally diffused over the surface of the globe, yet it is not found perfectly pure in any place; even the rain and the snow that descend from the clouds, the condensation, as it were, of a natural distillation, are slightly tainted by saline matters; which circumstance can only arise from the great solvent power of water enabling it to take up a portion of most substances with which it comes into contact, in its natural condition. In many lakes, and in the ocean, the quantity of saline matter is so great as to render it unfit for diluent purposes; but, when sea-water freezes, the saline impregnations are deposited; and the ice affords fresh water. In the state in which water is generally employed as a diluent, its impregnations are in small quantity, and not usually sufficient either to dim its transparency, or to give it color, smell, or taste, and consequently to render it unfit for the ordinary purposes of life. Water, therefore, which is transparent, colorless, inodorous, and tasteless, is called good and pure, and none other can be called such; though some medical writers are of opinion, that it is not necessary it should be in this pure state for common use. Such opinion however is undoubtedly erroneous—
II. In the organized kingdom. Water enters largely into the composition of organic substances. It constitutes, at least, four fifths of the weight of the animal tissues, being the source of their physical properties, extensibility and flexibility. This water is not chemically combined in them: for it is gradually given off by evaporation, and can be extracted at once by strong pressure between blotting-paper. When deprived of its water, animal matter becomes wholly insusceptible of vitality; except in the case of some of the lower animals, which, as well as some plants, revive when again moistened. According to Chevreul, pure water alone can reduce organized substances to this state of softness; although salt water, alcohol, ether, and oil, are also imbibed by dry animal textures. Moist animal tissues, by virtue of their porosity, allow soluble matters, which come into contact with them, to be dissolved by the water which they contain, and which oils their pores: if the matters are already in solution, they are imparted by their solutions to the water of the tissues. Gaseous substances are taken up in the same way. Water exists in nearly as large a proportion in vegetable as in animal substances.
Properties. Pure water, as has already been stated, is a transparent liquid without color, taste, or smell. Some have doubted whether it is entirely inodorous, from the fact that the camel, and some other animals, can scent water to a considerable distance, and also whether it can be called colorless, as all large masses of water have a bluish-green color. This phenomenon is, however, probably owing to the presence of foreign matters. It refracts light powerfully, is a slow conductor of heat, when its internal movements are prevented, and an imperfect conductor of electricity. It is almost incompressible, a pressure equal to 2000 atmospheres occasioning a diminution of only one-ninth of its bulk; or, when submitted to a compressing force equal to 30,000 lbs. on the square inch, 14 volumes of this fluid are condensed into 13 volumes; proving that it is elastic. Water being the substance most easily procured in every part of the earth in a state of purity, it has been chosen by universal consent, to represent the unit of the specific gravity of all solid and liquid bodies. A cubic inch of water at 60° Fah. weighs 255.5 grains; so that this fluid is about 815 times heavier than atmospheric air, but being the standard to which the weight of all other substances is referred, its specific weight is said to be 1. Accordingly when we say that the specific gravity of a body is two we mean that it weighs twice as much as the same volume of water would do. Water unites with both acids and bases, but without destroying their acid or basic properties. Thus the crystallized vegetable acids, tartaric, citric, and oxalic, are atomic combinations of water with acids. Caustic potash (potassa fusa) and slaked lime may be instanced as compounds of water, and basic substances; these are therefore called hydrates. The crystallized salts, such as alum, common salt, sulphate of soda, sulphate of magnesia, borate of soda, (borax,) &c., contain a large amount of water as a chemical constituent, called water of crystallization. Water rapidly absorbs some gases, as ammonia, fluoride of boron, &c., but it is neither combustible, nor, under ordinary circumstances, a supporter of combustion.
Composition. The composition of water is determined both by analysis and synthesis. If this liquid be submitted to the influence of a volcanic battery, it is decomposed into two gases, namely one volume of oxygen and two volumes of hydrogen. These gases, in the proportions just mentioned, may be made to recombine, and form water by heat, electricity, or spongy platinum, as water consists of one equivalent of hydrogen, 1 and one of oxygen, 8 = 9; and in volume, of one volume of hydrogen, and half a volume of oxygen, condensed into aqueous vapor or steam we can easily calculate the specific gravity of steam, for its density will be, .0689 (Sp. gr. of hydrogen) + .5512 (half the Sp. gr. of oxygen) = .6201.
Water as affected by the laws of Heat.
As the extensive and important functions which water discharges in the economy of nature, depend mainly on the manner in which it is affected by the laws of heat, a few remarks on this subject may not be inappropriate to this place.
Heat is communicated through water in a different manner, from that observed in relation to solids, for it is not conducted as in them, from one particle to another, but carried with the parts of the fluid by means of an intestine motion. Water expands and becomes lighter by heat, and therefore it is, that if the upper portion of water be cooled below the lower, the former descends, and the latter rises to take its place. Thus a constant counter-current is kept up, and the whole body of water has to cool down to near the freezing point, before congelation can take place. This equalization of temperature, moreover, takes place much more rapidly, than it would do in a solid body; hence alternations of heat and cold, as day and night, summer and winter, produce in water, inequalities of temperature much smaller than those which occur in a solid body.
Hence it is, that the ocean, which covers so large a portion of the earth’s surface, produces the effect of making the alternations of heat and cold much less violent than they would be if it were absent. The different temperatures of its upper and lower parts produce a current which draws the seas, and by means of the seas, the air, towards the mean temperature. This circulation is also carried on between distant tracts of the ocean; as we see in the case of the Gulf Stream, which rushing from the Gulf of Mexico across the Atlantic to the western shores of Europe, carries with it a portion of the heat of equatorial climes to the colder northern regions, and bringing back in return a portion of the cold from the same higher latitudes. Thus, large portions of the earth are rendered habitable to man, which, without the existence of such a law, would be doomed to perpetual frost and solitude. This influence of the ocean on temperature, explains satisfactorily some peculiarities in the climates of certain tracts and islands, for example, why London is cooler in summer, and hotter in winter than Paris. But though water expands by heat and contracts by cold, there is even a limit to this law, for had there not been, the lower parts of water would have frozen first, and thus entire lakes, rivers and oceans, perhaps, become solid, and had they become thus frozen, they would have remained so; for, as the heat at the surface would not have descended far through the colder parts, the main body of the ice must forever have remained solid, as in the arctic circle. To obviate this great disadvantage, water contracts by the increase of cold till we come near the freezing temperature, (40° F.) when it begins to expand and continues so to do till it freezes; at 32° F. Hence, water at 40° is at its greatest density and will lie at the bottom, with cooler water or ice floating above it. However much the surface be cooled, water colder than 40° cannot descend to displace water warmer than itself. Hence we never can have ice formed at the bottom of deep water, though it is not uncommon to find it thus situated, in shallow streams or rivers of rapid flow. Here the temperature of the whole body of water is brought down to the freezing point, and in freezing the ice adheres to the sides and bottom of the stream. What a beautiful provision is this, that the coldest water should rise to the surface, and there freeze and remain, exposed to the warmth of the sun-beams and the air, to be speedily dissolved upon the return of spring! This is owing to the well known fact, that in the act of freezing a still further expansion takes place, so that the specific gravity of ice is less than water of any temperature, and consequently floats upon the surface. We thus see that by the contraction of water by cold, the temperature of various times and places is equalized, though were that contraction without limit, a great portion of the earth would be bound in fetters of ice. Such a disastrous result, is prevented by the substitution of expansion for contraction, when the temperature is reduced to 40°, and the benevolent purposes of an all-wise Designer, are made still more manifest by the further expansion of water in the act of freezing. As water becomes ice by cold, it becomes steam by heat. We generally understand by steam the vapor of hot water, but steam or vapor rises from water at all temperatures, however low, and even from ice. The expansive force of this vapor increases rapidly as the heat increases, but yet in all cases the surface of water is covered with an atmosphere of aqueous vapor, the pressure, or tension of which is limited by the temperature of the water. If, therefore, the vapor is not confined, causing the surface of water to be pressed upon, evaporation will take place, and thus there must, according to this law, always exist an atmosphere of aqueous vapor, the tension of which may be compared with that of our common atmosphere. Now the pressure of the latter is measured by the barometrical column, about 30 inches of mercury, while that of watery vapor is equal to one inch of mercury at the constituent temperature of 80 degrees, and to one fifth of an inch at the temperature of 32 degrees.
If the atmosphere of air by which we are supported were annihilated, there would still remain, an atmosphere of aqueous vapor, arising from the waters and moist parts of the earth, but in the existing state of things this vapor rises in the atmosphere of dry air, and thus its distribution and effects are materially influenced by the vehicle in which it is thus carried.
The moisture thus floating at all times in the air, serves for the support of vegetable life, even in countries where rain seldom if ever falls. It is absorbed by the leaves of living plants, which thus increase in weight even when suspended in the atmosphere and disconnected with the soil. During intense heats, and when the soil is parched and dry, we see the life of plants thus preserved until the earth is again refreshed with showers, and the roots supplied with their wonted moisture.
Clouds, are produced when aqueous vapor returns to the state of water; and this process is called condensation. Whenever the temperature becomes lower than the constituent temperature, requisite for the maintenance of the vapory state, some of the vapor, or invisible steam, will be condensed, and become water. This may be seen illustrated in the condensation of the steam, as it issues from the spout of a tea-kettle. Clouds not only moderate the fervor of the sun, but they also check radiation from the earth, for we find that the coldest nights are those which occur under a cloudless winter sky. The use of clouds in the formation of rain, is too obvious to need pointing out more particularly. Snow is frozen vapour aggregated by a confused action of crystalline laws, and ice is water, solidified while in its fluid state, by the same crystalline forces. These are bad conductors of cold, and when the ground is covered with snow, or the surface of the soil, or if the water is frozen, the roots or bulbs of plants beneath are protected by the congealed water from the influence of the atmosphere, the temperature of which in northern winters, is usually very much below the freezing point; and this water becomes the first nourishment of the plant, in early spring. The expansion of water during its congelation, at which time its volume increases one twelfth, and its contraction in bulk during a thaw, tend to pulverize the soil, to separate its parts from each other, and to make it more permeable to the influence of the air.
When ice changes to water, or water to steam, although at an invariable degree of temperature, yet the change is not sudden, but gradual. When the heat reaches the point, at which thawing or boiling takes place, the temperature makes a stand; a portion of it disappears, or becomes latent, as it is called; thus the temperature of ice cannot be raised, till the whole is thawed, nor that of boiling water, till it has all been converted into steam; all the heat that is applied being absorbed in producing these changes. Were it not for this law of latent heat, thaw and evaporation would be instantaneous, we should be overwhelmed with floods, at the first glow of warmth in the spring, and in heating water the whole would flash instantaneously into steam upon reaching the boiling point.
It is through the same relations of water to heat, that springs are supplied—for these undoubtedly draw their principal supplies from rain. Mr. Dalton has calculated that the quantity of rain which falls in England is 36 inches a year. Of this he reckoned that 13 inches flow off to the sea by the rivers, and that the remaining 23 inches are raised again from the ground by evaporation. The 13 inches of water are of course supplied by evaporation from the sea, and are carried back to the land through the atmosphere. Vapor is perpetually rising from the ocean, and is condensed by cold in the hills and high lands, as is easily recognized by the mists and rains, which are frequent in such regions; whence it descends through their pores and crevices, till it is deflected, collected and conducted out to the sea, by some stratum or channel which is water-tight, thus keeping up a perpetual and compound circulation. In every country these two portions of the aqueous circulation have their regular and nearly constant proportion; and their due distribution appears to be necessary to its organic health, to the habits of vegetables and of man. This circulation goes on from year to year as regularly as that of the blood, in the veins and arteries of the human system, and though maintained by a very different machinery, is no less clearly adapted to its purposes. In short the properties of water which regard heat make one vast watering engine of the atmosphere, (Whewell.)
Common Water. Under this head are included the waters commonly known as rain, spring, river, well or pump, lake and marsh waters. Thomson includes ice, and snow water, spring and river water, and lake water under rain water, as it is from this source that they are chiefly supplied.
Rain Water is the purest kind of all natural waters, though subject to some variations. Thus, when collected in large towns or cities, it is less pure than when obtained in the country; moreover it is usually loaded with impurities at the commencement of a shower, but after some hours of continuous rain it becomes nearly pure; for the first water which falls brings down the various foreign matters suspended in the atmosphere. In specific gravity, it scarcely differs from distilled water. It nevertheless generally holds in solution common air, carbonic acid, carbonate of lime, chloride of lime, and a trace of nitric acid. If it be collected from the roofs of houses, after it has rained for some time, it contains sulphate of lime and occasionally carbonate of lead. The quantity of common air in rain water does not exceed 3½ cubic inches in 100 cubic inches of water; it contains more oxygen than atmospherical air; the same quantity of rain water contains one inch of carbonic acid gas.
These combinations, in the small quantities in which they exist, in no degree injure the diluent properties of rain water. It is indeed to the presence of the two elastic gases, that rain water owes the taste which renders it palatable to animals and useful to vegetables. Ice water, being destitute of these gases is extremely vapid; fish cannot live in it; and it does not seem either to quench thirst or to be so complete a solvent in the stomach as rain water. Carbonate of ammonia is also another ingredient. It is derived from the putrefaction of nitrogenous substances. When several hundred pounds of rain water were distilled by Liebig, in a copper still, and the first two or three pounds evaporated with the addition of a little muriatic acid, he found a very distinct crystallization of sal-ammoniac, the crystals having a brown or yellow color. “It is worthy of observation,” says Liebig, “that the ammonia contained in rain and snow water possesses an offensive smell of perspiration and animal excrements, a fact which leaves no doubt respecting its origin.” It is owing to the presence of carbonate of ammonia that rain water owes its softer feel than pure distilled water. According to Liebig, it is the atmospheric ammonia which furnishes the nitrogen of plants. The traces of nitric acid which have been detected in the air, are referable to the oxidation of the constituents of ammonia; and not to the direct union of the oxygen and free nitrogen of the atmosphere. Dr. Pereira states that a carbonaceous (sooty) substance, and traces of sulphates, chlorides, and calcareous matter, are the usual impurities of the first rain water of a shower. Zimmerman found oxide of iron and chloride potassium in rain water; other chemists have been able to detect no iron in it, but have found meteoric iron and nickel in dew. Brande detected in it, chloride of sodium, chloride of magnesium, sulphate and carbonate of magnesium, sulphate of lime, and oxide of manganese. The putrefaction to which rain water is subject, shows that some organic matter is present. The term pyrrhin (from πυρρος red) has been applied by Zimmerman to an atmospheric organic substance which reddens solutions of silver. Whenever rain water is collected near large towns, it should be boiled and strained before use, as it contains less saline impregnation than other kinds of natural waters, it is more apt to become contaminated with lead from roofs, gutters, cisterns, and water pipes. To purify rain water and render it useful, for the delicate purposes of chemical experiment, Morveau recommends dropping into it a little barytic water and then exposing it for some time to the atmospheric air. This combines with the carbonic acid, which being the solvent of the carbonate of lime, both it and the carbonate of baryta are precipitated as insoluble salts. Instead of exposing it to the atmosphere, it may be poured from one vessel to another; by which means not only the minute portion of barytic water is dispersed through the rain water, and brought into contact with the carbonic acid, but it involves a great portion of air in its substance, which improves both the taste and the utility of the fluid.
Snow water, as we have already stated, is destitute of air and other gaseous matters found in rain. According to Liebig, it contains ammonia. It has long been a popular, but erroneous opinion, that it was injurious to health, and had a tendency to produce bronchocele. But this malady occurs at Sumatra, where ice and snow are never seen; while, on the contrary, the disease is quite unknown in Chili and Thibet, although the rivers of these countries are chiefly supplied by the melting of the snow, with which the mountains are covered. Ice is said not to quench thirst, but on the contrary to augment it, and that the natives of the Arctic regions prefer enduring the utmost extremity of this feeling, rather than attempt to remove it by eating of snow,[8] (Captain Ross.)
2. Spring Water. Rain water, when it falls on high grounds, enters the soil and filtrates through it, until it is stopped by some natural obstacle, when it pushes upwards, and welling out upon the surface, forms springs; the water is therefore merely a modification of rain water. During its passage, however, it almost always takes up some soluble matters, which of course vary according to the nature of the soil. It is purest when it passes through sand or gravel; in a limestone region, it always contains more or less of the sulphate and carbonate of lime, and it generally contains a trace of common salt, and the usual proportions of air and carbonic acid gas. The presence of these is detected by subacetate of lead, which displays the smallest portion of carbonic acid or a carbonate, and nitrate of silver, which detects the muriates by the formation of muriate of silver.
Water from melted ice is perfectly wholesome, and is drunk during the summer season, wherever the climate will admit of its being collected and preserved at a moderate expense. In this form, it is a luxury—almost a necessary—in the middle states of this country more particularly, “where,” Dr. Dunglison remarks, “there is not a tavern on the road, on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge, that does not furnish ice to the traveller in any abundance.” When sea-water freezes, the ice does not contain the salts. Consequently, when melted, it affords fresh water, and according to the voyagers in high northern and southern latitudes, the water has been found sweet, soft, and wholesome.
River Water. This is a mixture of rain and spring water, and when deprived of the matters which it frequently holds in suspension, is generally of considerable purity. Mountain streams, which generally issue from siliceous rocks, and run over stony or pebbly beds, are, for the most part, comparatively pure and soft. The river water of New-England, and the other hilly portions of the United States, is usually of this description, though in the time of floods, and after heavy rains, they contain much sedimentary matter. River water gradually deposits much of its earthy salts as it flows, and becomes purer by exposure; it therefore generally contains less calcareous matter than spring water; its specific gravity is less, and its taste more vapid. It, however, more or less partakes of the nature of the soil over which it flows; consequently some rivers, whose waters were pure and excellent at their source, lose these properties before they mingle with the sea. The water of the Thames, for example, in England, which is originally very soft and pure, becomes so loaded with animal and vegetable matter from the towns and villages on its banks, that after being kept a month or two in a closed cask, on opening it, a quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, of the most offensive odor escapes, and the water is so black and nauseous as to be unfit for use. But on racking it off, it clears, depositing a quantity of slimy mud, and becomes remarkably clear, sweet and palatable. As the matters deposited in such rivers are merely mingled with the body of the water, which is too large, and too changing, to admit of any permanent taint from solution, filtration, or even the natural deposition of the ingredients fits them for every domestic and medicinal purpose.
* * * * *
The following Table shows the solid contents of the Thames water[9] London, and of the Croton water[10] in the city of New-York.
| QUANTITY OF WATER. 1 Gallon = 10 lbs. Avoirdupois, at 62° Fah., or 70, grs. Avoirdupois. | THAMES WATER. | CROTON WATER. | |||
| Brentford. Source of the Grand Junction Water Works Company. | Chelsea. Source of the Chelsea Water Works Company. | At its source, Croton Lake. | In the City of New-York as it issues from the pipes. | ||
| Grains. | Grains. | Grains. | Grains. | ||
| Carbonate of Lime, | 16·000 | 16·500 | 1·42 | 1·52 | |
| Sulphate of Lime, | } | 3·400 | 2·900 | ·00 | ·44 |
| Chloride of Sodium, | } | ||||
| Oxide of Iron, | } | very minute portions | Ditto. | ||
| Silica, | } | ||||
| Magnesia, | } | ·34 | ·46 | ||
| Carbonaceous Matter, | } | ||||
| Chloride of Magnesium, | } | ·86 | ·90 | ||
| Chloride of Calcium, | } | ||||
| Carbonate of Magnesia, | ·70 | ·84 | |||
| Solid matter held in solution, | 19·400 | 19·400 | 2·98 | 3·70 | |
| Mechanical impurity, | 0·368 | 0·238 | ·34 | ·46 | |
| Total solid matter, | 19·768 | 19·638 | 3·32 | 4·16 | |
Analysis of the Croton and Schuylkill waters, by J. C. Booth, Professor of Chemistry to the Franklin Institute of Pennsylvania, and H. M. Boye, of Philadelphia.
| Croton Water. | Schuylkill Water. | |||
| In 100 parts | gr. in 1 gall. | In 100 parts | gr. in 1 gall. | |
| Carbonate of Lime, | 45.86 | 2.293 | 53.67 | 2.190 |
| Carbonate of Magnesia, | 18.78 | .939 | 11.87 | 0.484 |
| Alkaline Carbonates, | 16.57 | .828 | 4.53 | 0.185 |
| Alkaline Chlorides, | 3.87 | .193 | 3.75 | 0.153 |
| Oxide of Iron, | 2.21 | .110 | ||
| Silica, | 7.18 | .359 | 9.68 | 0.395 |
| Organic Matter, | 5.53 | .276 | 0.88 | 0.036 |
| Parts, 100.00 | grs. 4.998 | |||
| Alumina and Oxide of Iron, | 1.88 | 0.077 | ||
| Alkaline Sulphates, | 13.74 | 0.560 | ||
| Parts, 100 | grs. 4.080 | |||
The Croton water was taken from the Croton dam, and when perfectly clear was found, as appears by the above analysis to contain 4.998, or about five grains of solid matter to the gallon. The Schuylkill water was taken from the middle basin on Fair Mount, and contained 4.08 grains of solid matter to the gallon. The Croton differs from the Schuylkill water in containing a larger amount of the alkaline carbonates, and of the carbonate of magnesia, while it contains less carbonate of lime, and is entirely destitute of the alkaline sulphates, of which the Schuylkill contains 13.74 parts in 100 of the total solid matters, though amounting to only one half a grain to the gallon.
It appears from the above table, that the amount of impurities contained in the Thames water, exceeds those of the Croton by nearly six fold, and that the quantity of lime, held in solution in the former, surpasses that of the latter, about fifteen times. The Thames water differs also from the Croton, in the circumstance that it contains an appreciable quantity of chloride of sodium, or common salt of which the Croton is entirely free. There are but very few streams to be found, whose waters contain less than 4.16 grains of solid matter to the gallon. The carbonate of lime is held in solution by carbonic acid, forming bicarbonate of lime. By boiling, this acid is expelled, and the carbonate of lime is precipitated on the sides of the vessel, constituting the fur of the tea-kettle, and the crust of boilers. River water always contains a quarter or less quantity of organic matter in suspension or solution. As a general rule, the quantity is too small to produce any decidedly injurious effect, but physicians and medical writers agree in the opinion that water impregnated with it to any great extent must be deleterious. Where the quantity of decomposing matter is too small to produce any immediately obvious effects, it is difficult to procure any decisive evidence of its influence on the system. When the amount is considerable, it causes dysentery and fevers, often of a highly fatal character. In a trial at Nottingham, England, in 1836, it was proved that dysentery of an aggravated form, was caused in cattle by the use of water contaminated with putrescent vegetable matter, produced by the refuse of a starch manufactory. The fish, (perch, pike, roach, dace, &c.,) and frogs in the pond, through which the brook ran, were destroyed, and all the animals which drank of the water became seriously ill, and many of them died with the symptoms of dysentery. It was, moreover, shown, that the animals sometimes refused to drink the water, that the mortality was in proportion to the quantity of starch made at different times; and that subsequently, when the putrescent matter was not allowed to pass into the brook, but was conveyed to a river at some distance, the fish and frogs began to return, and the mortality ceased among the cattle. There are many instances on record where troops have sickened and many died of putrid fever and dysentery, from drinking the water of stagnant pools and ditches or of rivers, as of the river Lee, near Cork, (Ireland,) which, in passing through the city, receives the contents of the sewers from the houses, and is otherwise unwholesome.
The organic matter contained in river water consists chiefly of the exuviæ of animal and vegetable substances, but another class of impurities consists of living beings, (animals and vegetables.) The aquatic animals, which have, from time to time, been exhibited in this city by means of the solar microscope, are collected in stagnant pools, and are not found in river or well water. The quantity of organic matter contained in the Croton must be extremely small, as this, together with the silex, iron, and magnesia, amount to only 4/10ths of one grain to the gallon.
Well Water,—or pump water, as it is often called in cities, is essentially the same as spring water, but liable to impregnation, owing to the land springs filtering through the walls, and conveying impurities into it. This is sometimes prevented by lining them with cast-iron cylinders, or by bricks laid in water-cement. Dr. Percival affirms, that bricks harden the softest water, and give it an aluminous impregnation. The old wells must, therefore, furnish much purer water than the more recent, as the soluble particles are gradually washed away. It contains a greater proportion of earthy salts, and of air, and has a greater specific gravity than other spring waters. Owing to the fact, that it contains a larger quantity of bicarbonate and sulphate of lime, than river water, it decomposes and curdles soap, and is then denominated hard water, to distinguish it from those waters which mix with soap, and are therefore called soft waters. The reason that hard water does not form a pure opaline solution with soap, is, because the lime of the calcareous salts, chiefly the sulphate, forms an insoluble compound with the margaric and oleic acids of the soap. Here a double decomposition ensues, the sulphuric acid unites with the alkali of the soap, setting free the fatty acids, which unite with the lime to form an insoluble earthy soap. Hard water is a less perfect solvent of organic matter than soft water; hence in the preparation of infusions and decoctions, and for many economical purposes, as making tea and coffee, and brewing, it is much inferior to soft water, and for the same reasons it is improper as a drink in dyspeptic affections, causing irritation, and a sensation of weight in the stomach. The abundance of this earthy salt in the water of Paris, and London, of many parts of Switzerland and this country, cause uncomfortable feelings in strangers who visit these places. It is also said to produce calculous complaints in the inhabitants, a result which might be expected, owing to the low solvent power of the water not being sufficient to carry off the animal acid, which concretes in the kidneys to form calculi.[11] Well water can be easily freed from these earthy salts; boiling precipitates the carbonate of lime by driving off the carbonic acid which holds it in solution; and the addition of a little carbonate of soda precipitates the lime, if any exist in the water. Many persons prefer the taste of hard water to that of soft, and a change from one to the other, frequently causes a derangement of the digestive organs. The briskness, and rapidity of this and other water is owing to the air, and carbonic acid mixed with it. The air contained in water, has a larger proportion of oxygen than atmospheric air, and hence it is better adapted for the respiration of animals.
The water procured from wells in the city of New-York, has gradually been growing more and more impure, as the city has increased in size, until a very large proportion of it, is entirely unfit for culinary and dietetic purposes. That in the lower part of the city, has always been, more or less, brackish, owing to the percolation of the salt water from the north and east rivers through the loose sandy soil, thus giving them a distinct saline impregnation. The amount of impurities contained in these waters, varies, therefore, in different parts of the city, according to its elevation, and the denseness of the population. A gallon of water from the well belonging to the Manhattan Company in Reade-street, yielded 125 grains of solid matter; while the same quantity of water, from their well in Bleecker-street, yielded 20 grains, and in 13th street, 14 grains. A gallon of water taken from four of the city wells in the densely populated parts of the city yielded on an average, 58 grains each of solid matter.
The supply also of well water has been gradually diminishing in this city for the last several years. For example, at the Chemical Works on the North River, at 33d street, and at an extensive distillery on the East River, some distance above the Alms House, water cannot be procured in sufficient quantities on their premises, where, but a few years past, it was obtained in great abundance. At the Gas Works on the Collect grounds, where they have a well 20 feet in depth, by 18 feet in diameter, which, until 1834, furnished water freely, enabling the engine to raise 20,000 gallons in ten hours, in 1835 it required 14 to 16 hours to raise the same quantity, and in order to continue the supply, it was found necessary to return the water to the well, after using it for condensing the gas. The Corporation well, also, in 13th street, furnished, for several years, about 120,000 gallons of water daily, but in 1835, this quantity was reduced down to from five to ten thousand. In order to remedy this evil, a well was sunk at Jefferson Market, which in a short time deprived most of the wells in that vicinity, of water; thus drying up one source of supply, in order to increase that of another. There is, therefore, every probability that had not water been introduced into the city of New-York from abroad, the supply from the wells would, in a few years, have been insufficient for the economical, domestic and manufacturing purposes of the inhabitants. It is fearful to contemplate the amount of decomposing organic matter contained in the wells in the vicinity of Trinity, St. Paul’s, and St. John’s burying grounds, which for more than a century furnished the only water used by those residing in their neighborhood. No one can doubt that the use of such water, as well as that from the wells on the Collect, and over the greater portion of the city below Canal-street, must have proved extremely detrimental to the health of the citizens, and especially to children, and infants. We believe, therefore that the introduction of the Croton water, will increase the average duration of human life in the city of New-York, from 8 to 12 per cent. From 1815 to 1836, it ranged from 30.08 to 22.05, (in 1836), but the mean duration of life for the last 20 years is about 25 years; and the ratio of mortality, according to population, about as 1 to 35. From the manner, however, in which the inspector’s reports have been made, from the imperfection of the law, no great confidence can be placed in the returns,—those carried out of the city for burial, not having been included.
From a “Report on the subject of introducing pure and wholesome water into the city of Boston, by L. Baldwin, Esq., Civil Engineer,” it appears that the whole number of wells in that city in 1835, was 2,767. The water from 2,085 of these wells was drinkable, though brackish and hard, and 682 of them were bad and unfit for use. There were only seven of the city wells which yielded soft water occasionally and for washing, and from 33 of them the water was obtained by deep boring. “Within a few years,” says the Report, “it has become common in Boston, and the vicinity, to bore for water, and to make what are called Artesian wells. But no certain or valuable result has grown out of these endeavors. There are 33 bored wells, only two of which are stated as furnishing soft water. The same remarks will apply to the public wells of this city, the most of which produce nothing but hard and brackish water, and none of which is sufficiently soft to authorize its use in washing clothes,” &c.
Lake Water is a collection of rain, spring and river water, usually more or less contaminated with putrefying organic matter. It is generally soft, and when filtered, is as good and wholesome as any other description of waters. Though lake water cannot be characterized as having any invariable qualities; yet most of the Lakes of the United States, especially our great ones, afford a very pure water. In many of our smaller lakes the water is more or less stagnant, and of course very unhealthy.
Marsh Water. This is analogous to lake water, except that it is altogether stagnant and is more loaded with putrescent matter. The sulphates in sea and other waters are decomposed by putrefying vegetable matter, with the evolution of sulphuretted hydrogen; hence the intolerable stench from marshy and swampy grounds liable to occasional inundations from the sea. Marsh water cannot be drunk with safety either by man or beast.
Tests of the usual impurities in Common Water.
The following are the tests by which the presence of the ordinary constituents or impurities of common waters may be ascertained.
1. Ebullition.—By boiling, air and carbonic acid gas are expelled, while carbonate of lime, (which has been held in solution by the carbonic acid) is deposited. The latter constitutes the crust which lines tea-kettles and boilers.
2. Protosulphate of Iron. If a crystal of this salt be introduced into a phial filled with the water to be examined, and the phial be well corked, a yellowish-brown precipitate (sesquioxide of iron) will be deposited in a few days, if oxygen gas be contained in the water.
3. Litmus. Infusion of litmus or syrup of violets is reddened by a free acid.
4. Lime Water. This is a test for carbonic acid, with which it causes a white precipitate (carbonate of lime) if employed before the water is boiled.
5. Chloride of Barium. A solution of this salt usually yields, with well water, a white precipitate insoluble in nitric acid. This indicates the presence of sulphuric acid (which, in common water, is combined with lime).
6. Oxalate of Ammonia. If this salt yield a white precipitate, it indicates the presence of lime, (carbonate and sulphate.)
7. Nitrate of Silver. If this occasion a precipitate insoluble in nitric acid, the presence of chlorine may be inferred.
8. Phosphate of Soda. If the lime contained in common water be removed by ebullition and oxalic acid, and to the strained and transparent water, ammonia and phosphate of soda be added, any magnesia present will, in the course of a few hours, be precipitated in the form of the white ammoniacal phosphate of magnesia.
9. Tincture of Galls. This is used as a test for Iron, with solutions of which it forms an inky liquor, (tannate and gallate of iron). If the test produce this effect on the water before, but not after boiling, the iron is in the state of carbonate; if after, as well as before, in that of sulphate. Tea may be substituted for galls, to which its effects and indications are similar. Ferro cyanide of potassium yields, with solutions of the sesqui-salts of iron, a blue precipitate, and with the proto-salts a white precipitate, which becomes blue by exposure to the air.
10. Hydrosulphuric Acid. (Sulphuretted Hydrogen.) This yields a dark (brown or black) precipitate, (a metallic sulphuret) with water containing iron or lead in solution.
11. Evaporation and Ignition. If the water be evaporated to dryness, and ignited in a glass tube, the presence of organic matter may be inferred by the odor and smoke evolved, as well as by the charring. Another mode of detecting organic matter is by adding nitrate (or acetate) of lead to the inspected water, and collecting and igniting the precipitate; when globules of metallic lead are obtained if organic matter be present. The putrefaction of water is another proof of the presence of this matter. Nitrate of silver is the best test for the presence of chloride of soda or common salt. By adding a small quantity of this to the common well water of New-York, a copious, white, flocculent precipitate is immediately formed, which is the chloride of soda. The same test, however, applied to the Croton water, produces no discoloration whatever.
Purification of Common water. By filtration, water may be deprived of living beings and of all suspended impurities; but substances held in solution, cannot thus be separated. Ebullition destroys the vitality of both animals and vegetables; expels air, or carbonic acid, and causes the precipitation of carbonate of lime, but the water should be afterwards subjected to the process of filtration. Distillation, when properly conducted is the most effectual method of purifying water. But distilled water is in general contaminated by traces of organic matter. The addition of chemical agents is another mode which has been proposed and practised, for freeing water from some of its impurities. Alum is often used by the common people to cleanse muddy water, and ashes and pearl-ash to destroy its hardness. When alum is used, two or three grains are sufficient for a quart of water. The alum decomposes the carbonate of lime; sulphate of lime is formed in solution, and the alumina precipitates in flocks, carrying with it mechanical impurities. This agent, however, adds nothing to the chemical purity of the water, but by converting the carbonate into sulphate of lime augments its hardness. Caustic alkalies added to lime saturate the excess of carbonic acid, and throw down the carbonate of lime, having an alkaline carbonate in solution. Professor Clark of Aberdeen,[12] (Scotland) has recently patented a plan for the purification of water, by the addition of lime. The lime unites with the excess of carbonic acid in the water, and forms carbonate of lime (chalk) which precipitates, along with the carbonate of lime held previously in solution in the water. The effect of this process is similar to that of ebullition,—as the hardness of water is, however, owing to the sulphate and not the carbonate of lime,[13] this plan can have little or no influence in rendering hard water soft. Alkaline carbonates soften water, decompose all the earthy salts (calcareous and magnesian carbonates, sulphates, and chlorides) and precipitate the earthy matters. They leave, however, in solution, an alkaline salt, but which does not communicate to water the property of hardness.
Sea-water includes the waters of the ocean and of those lakes, called island seas, which possess a similar composition. The Dead Sea, however, varies so much from ordinary sea-water, as to rank amongst mineral waters.
The quantity of solid matter varies considerably in the waters of different seas, as the following statement proves—
| 10,000 parts of water of | Solid constituents. | |
| the Mediterranean Sea, contain | 410 grs. | |
| English Channel, | 380 „ | |
| German Ocean | { At the Island of Fohe, | 345 „ |
| { At the Island of Norderney, | 342 „ | |
| { In the Frith of Forth, | 312 „ | |
| { At Ritzebuttle, | 312 „ | |
| At Apemalle, in Sleswick, | 216 „ | |
| At Kiel, in Holstein, | 200 „ | |
| Baltic Sea | At Doberan, in Mecklenbergh, | 168 „ |
| At Travemunæ, | 167 „ | |
| At Zoppot, in Mecklenbergh, | 76 „ | |
| At Carshamm, | 66 „ | |
The average quantity of saline matter in sea-water is 3½ per cent., and its specific gravity about 1.0274. The composition of sea-water differs also in different localities. Iodine has been found in the Mediterranean sea.
Action of Water on Lead. When lead is exposed to atmospheric air, the oxygen of the air combining with it, forms an oxide, while, at the same time the carbonic acid of the air, unites with it forming a thin white crust, which is the carbonate of lead. This formation is accelerated by moisture, and by the presence of an unusual quantity of carbonic acid in the atmosphere. The same process goes on with still greater rapidity in pure running water. But if water be deprived of all its gases by ebullition, and excluded from contact with the air, the lead will not be acted upon If water, however, be exposed to the air, although all the gases have been expelled, a white powder will soon form around the lead, till, in the course of a few days, there is formed a large quantity of white, pearly scales, which partly float in the water, but are chiefly deposited on the bottom of the vessel. In 12 ounces of distilled water, contained in a shallow glass basin, loosely covered to exclude the dust, twelve brightly polished lead rods weighing 340 grains, will lose 2½ grains in 8 days, and the lead will show evident marks of corrosion; and this action will go on as long as the water is exposed to the air. While these changes are going on, a small quantity of lead will be dissolved, as may be shown by carefully filtering the water acidulating with a drop or two of nitric acid, and evaporating to dryness. Sulphuretted hydrogen is also a good test, occasioning, where lead is present, first a brown color, and subsequently a black precipitate. Christison has proved that the lead which is dissolved, is in the form of the carbonate, and hydrate of the oxide, or, oxide of lead, carbonic acid and water.
The fact is then sufficiently established, that distilled water has the property of dissolving lead—Does the same hold true in relation to waters in ordinary use? In the year 1809, it was first announced by Guyton Morveau, that the salts which are held in solution by some natural waters, destroy their property of acting on lead, and that of these modifying circumstances none are more remarkable in their action than the neutral salts. Dr. Christison has pursued this investigation with great success, and has proved that this preservative power exists in the case of sulphates, muriates, carbonates, hydriodates, phosphates, nitrates, acetates, tartrates, arseniates, &c. These salts, however, do not possess an equally protective influence, the carbonates and sulphates being most, the chlorides the least energetic of those saline substances commonly met with in waters. As a general rule, it appears that those whose acid forms with the lead a soluble salt of lead, are the least energetic; while those whose acid forms an insoluble salt of lead, are most energetic. The variable quantity of salts necessary to prevent the action of water on lead, may be seen from the following results obtained by actual experiment.
| Of acetate of soda a 100th part of the water is a preservative. | |||
| Of arseniate of soda 12,000th | „ | „ | „ |
| Of phosphate of soda 30,000th | „ | „ | „ |
| Of hydriodate of potash 30,000th | „ | „ | „ |
| Of muriate of soda 2,000th | „ | „ | „ |
| Of sulphate of lime 4,000th | „ | „ | „ |
| Of nitrate of potash 100th | „ | „ | „ |
The sulphates of soda, magnesia, lime, and the triple sulphate of alumina and potash, possess about the same preservative power; which appears to depend on the acid, not on the base of the salt. The general results of Dr. Christison’s investigations, appear to be, that neutral salts in various, and for the most part minute, proportions, retard or prevent the corrosive action of water on lead—allowing the carbonate to deposit itself slowly, and to adhere with such firmness to the lead as not to be afterwards removed by moderate agitation,—adding subsequently to this crust other insoluble salts of lead, the acids of which are derived from the neutral salts in solution,—and thus at length forming a permanent and impermeable screen in the form of a film over its surface, through which the action of the water cannot any longer be carried on. These films are composed of the carbonate of lead, with a little of the muriate, sulphate, arseniate, or phosphate of lead, according to the nature of the acid in the alkaline salt, which is dissolved in the water. The following general conclusions may therefore be considered as sufficiently established.
1. Lead pipes ought not to be used for the purpose of conducting water, at least where the distance is considerable, without a careful examination of the water to be transmitted.
2. The risk of a dangerous impregnation with lead is greatest in the instance of the purest waters.
3. Water, which tarnishes polished lead when left at rest upon it in a glass vessel for a few hours, cannot safely be transmitted through lead-pipes without certain precautions; and conversely, it is probable, that if lead remain untarnished, or nearly so, for 24 hours in a glass of water, the water may be safely conducted through lead-pipes.
4. Water which contains less than about an 8000th of salts in solution, can not be safely conducted in lead pipes without certain precautions.
5. Even this proportion will prove insufficient to prevent corrosion, unless a considerable part of the saline matter consists of carbonates and sulphates, especially the former.
6. So large a proportion as a 4000th part, probably even a considerably larger proportion, will be insufficient, if the salts in solution be in a great measure muriates.
7. In all cases careful examination should be made of the water after it has been running a few days through the pipes; for it is not improbable that other circumstances, besides those hitherto ascertained, may regulate the preventive influence of the neutral salts.
8. Where the water is of sufficient purity to act on lead, a remedy may be found, either, in leaving the pipes full of water and at rest for three or four months, or by solution of phosphate of soda; in the proportion of about a 25,600th part.[14]
Dr. Kane, however, seems to differ from Dr. Christison in opinion on this subject; for after having mentioned the crust which gradually forms on the interior of the cistern, and assists in protecting it from the oxidizing action of the air, he remarks, “no danger is therefore to be apprehended from the supply of water to a city being conveyed through leaden pipes, and preserved in leaden cisterns; for all water of mineral origin dissolves, in filtering through the layers of rocks in its passage to the surface, a sufficiency of saline matters to serve for its protection.”
Now, to apply these results to the water of the Croton; as this holds in solution only about one 18,000th part of salts, it must, according to Christison, exert a corroding influence on the lead-pipes. Dr. Dana, of Lowell, has lately investigated this subject and detected lead in the water which had passed through the leaden-pipes for the distribution of water in the city of Lowell. The first examination was made from a sample of water taken from the source or spring-head before it had entered the leaden pipes, when the specific gravity was found to be 1,000,18. The pint, on evaporation to dryness, yielded 2.37 grains of solid matter. The solid contents of an imperial pint were found to be,
| Grains. | |
| Chloride of Sodium, | 1.54 |
| Chloride of Magnesia, | 0.71 |
| Sulphate of Lime, | 0.128 |
| A trace of Carbonic acid, | |
| Grains, | 2.378 |
| Excess in the course of analysis | .008 |
The second examination was made of water taken from the leaden pipes when the specific gravity was found to be 1.000.42. Upon a pint of this water being evaporated to dryness it yielded two grains of solid matter, (viz.)
| Carbonate of lead | 164 | Grains, |
| Organic matter and salts | 038 | „ |
| 202 | „ | |
| Excess in analysis, | 002 | „ |
It therefore has been calculated that every gallon of the water used after passing through the leaden pipes, contains 1.312 grains of the carbonate of lead. Such water, although it would not speedily destroy life, would undoubtedly be attended with injurious consequences, should its use be habitually continued.
On the other hand, Dr. Hare of Philadelphia, in reply to a letter requesting his opinion as to the action of the Schuylkill water[15] on lead pipes, states that after using the Schuylkill water for 25 years in his laboratory, he has never perceived the slightest indication of the presence of lead; and that if there had been any in the water, the re-agents which he has been accustomed to use must have rendered the impurity evident. If it be true that the Schuylkill water does not act upon the lead pipes, it would follow as a matter of course, if the doctrines above laid down be correct, that the Croton, which contains very nearly the same quantity of saline ingredients, would also exert no influence upon this metal. In cases, however, where injurious consequences have resulted from the agency of lead, the pipes through which the water was conducted, were of considerable length; suppose for example that the pipes are 4000 feet long, and three fourths of an inch in diameter, each portion of water will pass successively over no less than 784 square feet of lead before being discharged; and it would not therefore be at all remarkable, if the water were found contaminated with the lead. In this city, however, the pipes are rarely more than 50 feet in length, generally not more than 25, and therefore cannot exert so deleterious an influence as in those of greater extent. Dr. Chilton, recently inspected the Croton water drawn from the leaden pipes, by which it is introduced into the house of Mr. G. D. Coggeshall. No 421 Pearl-street in this city, and found the water evidently affected by the lead. He has also obtained similar results in several other instances. If the precaution be used, of not employing the water first drawn from the pipes for dietetic and culinary purposes, no injurious consequences would probably attend the use of water conveyed in this metal, but as this is not likely to be attended to generally, it is expedient to employ other measures to guard against its deleterious effects.
For this purpose, various means have been suggested, such as the substitution of block-tin and other metals not acted upon by water; but the most efficient, scientific, and useful, as well as the most economical, of all the plans hitherto proposed, is that introduced by Thomas Ewbank, Esq., of coating the lead-pipes with tin both inside and out. The process, which has been patented, consists simply in drawing an ordinary lead-pipe through a bath of melted tin, coated with a layer of melted rosin, which leaves a continuous deposit, of tin upon both sides of the pipe, of sufficient thickness, to effectually prevent any oxidation of the lead. These pipes have been highly recommended by our first chemists, and other men of science, as furnishing an effectual safeguard against the corroding effects of pure water This highly ingenious process, strengthens the pipe, without diminishing its elasticity, and although some small portions of the lead should escape being coated, yet the proximity of the tin, will, from galvanic action, probably prevent oxidization of the lead. As these pipes are furnished at about eight cents per pound, the usual price of ordinary lead-pipe, there can be no doubt that they will be generally adopted by our citizens,—as they have been, already, by the Corporation, in the conveyance of the Croton water, into the public buildings.
Use of Water as Aliment. Water is the beverage provided by nature for all animated beings. It is a vital stimulus, or one of the external conditions essential for the manifestations of life. Consequently, without it, life, at least in the higher order of animals, could not be maintained.
Considered in a dietetical point of view, water serves three important purposes in the animal economy; namely, it repairs the loss of the aqueous part of the blood, caused by the action of the secreting and exhaling organs; secondly, it is a solvent of various alimentary substances, and therefore assists the stomach in the act of digestion, though, if taken in very large quantities, it may have an opposite effect, by diluting the gastric juice; thirdly, it is a nutritive agent, that is, it assists in the formation of the solid parts of the body.
As a diluent, water is indispensable to the preservation of health. The body being composed of solids and fluids, there must be maintained a certain relative proportion of these, to constitute that state of system called health. In a full grown adult, the solid matter of the body, by which we mean all that substantial part of the frame which is not in constant motion in the vessels, amounts to only about one fifth of the weight of the body—Chaussier says, one ninth of the total weight, the difference, perhaps, being owing to the fact that there is a quantity of fluid combined with the solids in so intimate a manner, as almost to constitute a part of their substance. The diminution of the fluid part of the body, is the cause of an uneasy sensation, indicating the necessity of repairing the waste of fluids, which we familiarly call thirst. This is a sensation connected with some natural state of the corporeal functions, and altogether independent of the occasional excitement of foreign bodies, although it may be induced by these. There is a demand for a certain supply of liquid which is the result of repletion of the stomach, and the cause of our drinking at our ordinary meals, but this is different from true or spontaneous thirst. True thirst occurs, when we have been some time without taking drink, (unless the food has consisted mainly of fruits and other succulent vegetables; under which circumstances, a person may go for months without any desire for drink); when the system has been greatly excited, whether by corporeal or mental causes; when acid substances, particularly saline bodies, have been taken into the stomach; and, in short, in every condition of the system, which favors the inordinate excretion of fluids. The immediate cause of thirst appears to be a dry state of the mouth and fauces; owing to the mucus which covers these parts becoming thick and viscid, though physiologists are not agreed on this point. This may arise from the absorption of the fluid parts of the saliva; for it appears to be necessary for the due performance of the functions of the palate and the tongue, that the mucus should possess a certain degree of liquidity. The sensation of thirst is generally indicative of the necessity of a supply of fluid to the system generally; for although thirst may be momentarily assuaged by wetting the mouth, or holding a thin fluid in it—yet it can only be effectually relieved by conveying into the stomach a quantity of fluid sufficient to supply the deficiency. This supply is termed dilution, from the fact that the fluid is absorbed and carried into the blood, which it renders thin, and the fluids themselves are called diluents.
Thirst, however, does not always indicate a deficiency of fluids in the circulating mass, and the tongue and fauces are occasionally dry and harsh whilst the sensation of thirst is absent. Some individuals never experience the sensation of thirst. Mr. Alcott, who lives entirely on succulent vegetables, states that he has drunk no fluids for more than a year past, and that he never experiences the sensation of thirst—a similar case is mentioned by Sauvages, of an individual who never thirsted, and passed whole months of the hottest weather without drinking. It is well known that many warm-blooded animals such as mice, quails, parrots, rabbits, &c., drink but very little; which is supposed to be owing to the circumstance that they have very large salivary glands, and a larger pancreas in proportion to the size of their bodies. In general, as we have already remarked, thirst is indicative of diminished fluidity of the blood and when it is not assuaged by taking liquids into the stomach, or by moistening the mouth with them, or by applying them to the surface, the torment which it induces amounts occasionally almost to phrenzy, and is borne with less patience and greater difficulty than hunger; sometimes inflammation of the mouth and throat and intense fever supervene. Various circumstances connected with the ordinary condition of the body influence the sensation of thirst. Thus it is greater in infancy and childhood than in adult age, and less in old age; it is greater in women than in men; it is varied by constitution and temperament; by climate; season; the nature of the diet; exercise; passions of mind, and even by imagination. As an aliment, water is of prime necessity to all organized beings. As a solvent, it reduces to a fluid mass all the principles necessary for the growth of animal and vegetable bodies; which must be in a fluid form, before they can be taken up by the fine lacteal and other absorbent vessels, and thus carried to every part of the living tissue. How important then, that this universal solvent should be pure,—that it should be free from those foreign ingredients, whether of animal, vegetable or mineral origin, which, if introduced into the system, tend to disturb the functions of the various organs, and often to occasion serious derangement and disease. But besides its important office as a menstruum, water is perhaps the most important nutrient, of all those which sustain the existence of organized bodies. A great proportion of that which is drunk, is speedily absorbed by the veins, and carried into the circulation, some time before the product of the digested food is introduced by the way of the laeteals. There are numerous cases on record, where persons have lived, for a considerable length of time, on water alone. In the “Transactions of the Albany Institute,” for 1830, Dr. M’Naughten relates the case of a man who was sustained on water alone, for 53 days. “For the first six weeks he walked out every day, and sometimes spent a great part of the day in the woods. His walk was steady and firm, and his friends even remarked that his step had an unusual elasticity; he shaved himself until about a week before his death, and was able to sit up in bed till the last day.”
To the evils which result from the use of impure water, we have already alluded, although it would require far more space than has been assigned to us in this Appendix, to do them adequate justice. There can be no doubt, that the chief cause of the excess of mortality in cities, over that of the country, is to be found in the impure water, with which the former are so generally supplied, and we may confidently predict, that in consequence mainly of the introduction of the Croton River into the City of New-York, no city in the world of equal size, will surpass it in salubrity. To the operation of the same cause, we may doubtless look with confidence for a decided improvement in personal comeliness and beauty. “It is evident,” says Dr Jackson, “that the health of a whole community may be so affected by impurities in water drank by them, as to give a peculiar morbid expression to their countenances which causes the observant eye of a traveller to remark it, while he in vain endeavours to account for the phenomenon. Who has not remarked the expression common in some of our cities, as in New-York and Boston, which is called a “care worn and anxious expression.” This expression I will venture to assert, is not so much the result of “too much care,” as it is of abdominal disease, produced by the habitual and continued use of impure and unwholesome water, which has fixed upon us this morbid stamp. I do not know that the people of the cities in question, are subject to more care than those in other districts, but I do know that they use every day, in many forms, a variety of noxous ingredients, which they pump up from their wells, dissolved in the water, and which enters into every form of food and drink they use in their houses.” Mrs. Hale, also, in her excellent Manual “The Good Housekeeper,” remarks, that “hard water always leaves a mineral matter on the skin, when we use it in washing, which renders the hands and face rough and liable to chap. Does not this water, if we drink it, likewise corrode and injure the fine membranes of the stomach? The Boston people, who constantly use hard water for all purposes of cookery and drink, certainly have bad complexions, sallow, dry, and hard looking; and complaints of the stomach or dyspepsia are very common among them.[16] A Salem gentleman declared, that when his daughters, who frequently visited at Boston, passed two or three weeks at a time there, he could see a very material change in their complexions. At Salem there is plenty of soft water, and the ladies of that ancient town are famed for their beauty, which is chiefly owing (its superiority I mean) to a peculiarly fair, delicate tincture of skin contrasted with the half petrified appearance of those who are obliged to drink hard water always, and often to wash in it.” Such authority on this point we presume will not be disputed.
Health, however, is no less promoted by the internal, than by the external use of water; and it is to be hoped, that but a short period will elapse, before free baths will be provided at the public expense, for the use of the poor, as well as the public generally. Daily ablution should be regarded as necessary as daily food or sleep.
The advantages which soft water possesses over hard, in the thousand economical purposes of life, are too obvious to need particular remark. The lime contained in well water, renders it inapplicable to the purposes of brewing, tanning, washing, bleaching, and many other processes in the arts and domestic economy; and we believe the calculation would not be found extravagant, if we should say that by the use of the Croton water 100,000 dollars annually will be saved to the inhabitants of New-York, in the articles of soap and soda alone. When to this, we add the increased comfort and health of the citizens, from its free external and internal use,—the superior cleanliness of the streets, by the washing away of all stagnant matters in the sinks and gutters, and the consequent purity of the atmosphere,—the diminution of danger from fires, and the consequent reduction of rates of insurance, with other important advantages too numerous to detail, we shall not consider its introduction purchased at too dear a rate, even were the expenses attending it increased to double the actual amount.
We need not attempt to specify in detail the benefits which are likely to accrue to the city of New-York from the introduction of an abundance of pure water. Its value is not to be estimated by dollars and cents; though it might easily be shown, that it already saves to the citizens a sum far exceeding the annual interest on its cost. We have already referred to its superiority as a solvent of vegetable matter, over the hard well water, formerly used. Since then, we have made a calculation, by which we are satisfied that in the single items of tea and coffee, it will save to the inhabitants of this city annually, not far from 90,000 dollars. To this may be added the improvement of the public health, and the consequent saving in medicine, and physicians’ fees, a sum probably exceeding that above specified; the increase of the working days, and the extension of the average period of working ability among the laboring classes; and lastly, the moral and intellectual advancement of the entire population, attendant upon the improvement of their physical condition; each of which is not an unimportant item in the aggregate of public prosperity and happiness.
Such are some of the facts connected with this important fluid—water. So common and abundant is it in nature, that we are apt to overlook its value; but we need only be deprived of it for a season, when we shall set a due estimate upon its importance. Pure and sparkling to the eye, bland and refreshing to the taste, whether it bubbles up from mother earth, gurgles in rills, flows along in streams and rivers, or spreads out in lakes and oceans, it every where proves a blessing,—and ought to be universally regarded as one of the most inestimable gifts of Providence to man. As it is the only fluid capable of quenching thirst, so it is the only one compatible with the prolonged duration of animal life—we need not add, that as ALCOHOL, under all its combinations, fermented and distilled, is a deadly poison, fatal to organized beings, whether they belong to the vegetable or animal kingdom, WATER can in no case be improved by combining it with this deleterious fluid. It was formerly common in this city, and still is so in many places where the well-water is brackish, to modify its taste by the addition of a quantity of brandy, or some other form of ardent spirit, with a view, not only of rendering it more agreeable to the palate, but also of correcting the deleterious properties, occasioned by the salts held by it in solution. But in all such instances, the spirit which is added proves far more injurious than the small quantity of vegetable and mineral matters which it is designed to correct. To the latter, the system becomes in a manner habituated, so that even when pure soft water can be had, the former is often preferred, as is now the case with many individuals, who prefer our brackish well water to that of the Croton. But where ardent spirit is added, an artificial appetite for stimulants is soon created,—there is a constantly increasing demand for a repetition as well as increase of the dose, derangement of the digestive organs succeeds, and in a large majority of instances, the health is irremediably impaired. But fortunately, no arguments are needed in this place to convince the citizens of New-York that pure Croton water needs no corrective,—and that it is the sworn enemy of fire, whether in the shape of alcoholic poison, or that of the more simple element—
“Αριστον μεν υδωρ”—Pindar.
PRINTED BY WILLIAM OSBORN,
88 William-street.